Whilst I have been sorting through the contents of the crates from the now-defunct shed, I have been thinking about a scenario for a possible war set in my Imagi-world of 1891. It would involve the two earliest imagi-nations that I ever used, Opeland and Upsland. (Technically-speaking I created Opeland and Upsland was created by my brother … but I don’t think that my brother would mind me ‘using’ his creation.)
Scenario: The Amber War between Opeland and UpslandBoth Opeland and Upsland have small professional armies and navies that are equipped with the most modern weapons their respective governments can afford to buy for them. The economies of Opeland and Upsland depend upon the exploitation of their natural resources (mainly wood and metal ores) and the small-scale manufacturing of weapons, ships, and furniture. They are also important suppliers of amber to the rest of the world.

A recent storm in the straits between the Britannic Sea and the Sea of Opeland has exposed a large deposit of amber on the beach of the small uninhibited island of Litenoy. The island is approximately halfway between the northernmost tip of the Jutaland Peninsular and the coast of Opeland. The amber was discovered by fishermen from both Opeland and Upsland who use the island as a safe anchorage during storms. The only problem is that the island is claimed by both Opeland and Upsland.

The potential area of operations should war break out over the island of Litenoy.

Both nations wish to be able to enforce their claim of sovereignty over Litenoy should the need arise, and to ensure this they have put their respective armed forces onto the highest state of preparedness short of war.

Having sketched out a scenario, all I need to do now is the raise the necessary wargame forces from what I have to hand … and then the campaign may commence!

The sorting out of the contents of the shed continues. When I opened one of the crates I discovered a storage box that contained my long-lost 1:300th-scale Spanish Civil War armies. These were created from a mixture of World War II and Colonial figures from the ranges produced by Heroics & Ros, and were used to demonstrate the earlier versions of my Spanish Civil War rules, ¡ARRIBA ESPAÑA!

The NationalistsThe Nationalist forces were made up of two ‘battalions’ of infantry (actually a Bandera of the Spanish Foreign Legion and a Tabor of Moroccan Regulares), a battery of field artillery, and a tank company.

The RepublicansThe Republicans were made up of both regular and militia forces.

The regulars consisted of a battalion of Peninsulares (Spanish conscripts who served on the Spanish mainland and not in North Africa), two companies of Assault Guards (para-military police), a Grupo of field artillery, a battery of anti-tank guns, and a tank company.

The militia consisted of three ‘battalions’ of Trade Unionist and members of political movements. These were the PCE (Partido Comunista de España [Communist Party of Spain]), the UGT (Unión General de Trabajadores [General Union of Workers]), and the FAI (Federación Anarquista Ibérica [Iberian Anarchist Federation]).

An added bonus was the fact that the box these armies were stored in contained three scratch-built 15mm-scale model Vickers six-ton tanks.

These were built many years ago for my Chaco War project … and I can certainly find a use for them today!

I have been following Ross Macfarlane’s blog BATTLE GAME OF THE MONTH for a long time, and even had the pleasure of meeting him when Sue and I visited Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 2013. He is slightly younger than me, but we have both been wargaming for roughly the same amount of time and share a lot of common wargaming interests and outlooks.

In a very recent blog entry he wrote about his current interest in wargaming the early stages of the First World War. Included in the text of this particular blog entry was the following statement:

The real point is that, while preparing an old Crescent 18pdr for repainting in grey, it occurred to me that my recent enthusiasm for WWI figures and books and plan for a Centenary Homage game may have unintentionally given the impression that I might be on the cusp of reverting to being a bona fide historical miniature wargamer. Let me assure everyone that this is not the case; I remain a proponent of the Little Wars approach. Not the specific bit about shooting toy cannons but the general approach of studying history but playing a game with fictional armies of toy soldiers.

I have emboldened the last two sentences because Ross’s statement encapsulates my approach to my solo wargaming. I still fight historical wargames with the other members of Wargame Developments and the Jockey’s Field Irregulars, but when I am at home fighting my solo wargames I am always happier using the armies of historically and fictionally-based imagi-nations.

In his most recent blog entry, Ross Macfarlane mentions that he owns a tinplate castle that is very similar to the one I found during the recent sort out of my shed. I have now done some research and it would appear that the castle was made by Crescent Toys and was sold in at least three boxed versions:

Gatehouse, small square towers, and walls

Gatehouse, large round towers, small square towers, and walls

Gatehouse, large round towers, small square towers, walls, and a selection of Knights

Mine appears to be the second of these versions, although the small square towers – which I remember owning – seem to have been lost at some point.

A LITTLE WARS session had been planned for COW2014, but unfortunately it was cancelled. This was a pity as I had decided just beforehand to ‘recruit’ a new unit for my 54mm-scale collection. The figures were old plastic British Guardsmen that I had been given, and I decided that with new mid blue trousers and white belts they would look rather like the Danish Royal Life Guard Regiment (Den Kongelige Livgarde) in their full-dress ceremonial uniform.

After one of my recent blog entries in which I mentioned Les Higgins Miniatures, I received a very nice email from John Cunningham (AKA Old John) about the Marlburian and other War of the Spanish Succession ranges that were modelled and produced by Less Higgins. I understand that John has the moulds for the following Less Higgins Miniatures as well as several other smaller ranges of compatible figures:

I used to have a small army of these figures, but most of them were sold when I was trying to raise money for the deposit on the first house my wife and I bought. All I have left are the few that I photographed recently.

I particularly liked the free model of Pegasus Bridge and the surrounding buildings (which I have visited) and the article about running a wargames business. I ran my own (non-wargaming) business for twelve years, and can attest to the fact that it is not easy. I seemed to spend more time filling in forms for and making payments to the HMRC than I did running the core business. If I had tried to do that for a business that was also my hobby, I doubt that I would still be a wargamer!